Here are the first pictures of what is touted to be the GeForce GTX 580 reference design graphics card by NVIDIA, by sections of the Chinese media. There are some interesting inferences that can be drawn just by the looks of the card. To begin with the cooler bears an uncanny resemblance to one of the earliest design iterations of the GeForce GTX 480 (pictured here and here). In its final iteration, NVIDIA gave the GTX 480 a more massive cooler, perhaps to keep up with its finalized clock speeds. If the design of the GTX 580 cooler is anything to go by, it means that either NVIDIA refined the GF100 architecture in the GF110 (on which GTX 580 is based) a great deal, increasing performance per Watt; or that since GTX 580 is in its development stage, its final version could look different. GeForce GTX 580 is being designed as a counter to AMD's Radeon HD 6900 series single-GPU graphics cards that are based on the new Cayman graphics core, which is slated for release in late November. It is expected to be 20% faster than the GTX 480.

1(580) vs 2(6970)? this is interesting, they might have a voodoo spell to make it faster than 6970

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They stated it's set to compete with the single core Caymans so I highly doubt it will equal two. I would honestly look to what they're saying ~20% faster than a GTX480. Honestly if they improved the power consumption similar to they did with the GTX460 it could be a great card with relatively low heat generation (Compared to the 480).

580 is currently PR. And that's about it.
Showed there is a card case and nothing more. Could be anything inside.
A fully unlocked 480 is still unbuildable and would be sold at a loss. The 580 would have to be build on GF104's modified architecture to be good for something.

580 is currently PR. And that's about it.
Showed there is a card case and nothing more. Could be anything inside.
A fully unlocked 480 is still unbuildable and would be sold at a loss. The 580 would have to be build on GF104's modified architecture to be good for something.

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You should probably read the summary posted here.

If the design of the GTX 580 cooler is anything to go by, it means that either NVIDIA refined the GF100 architecture in the GF110 (on which GTX 580 is based) a great deal, increasing performance per Watt; or that since GTX 580 is in its development stage, its final version could look different

I am an AMD fan (as most of you know), but if NV can pull this off, it could be what Fermi should have been in the first place...EPIC. Refinement in the design and working the kinks out of the FAB process could have cured most of the early problems associated with Fermi. The 460 is pretty damn impressive, and I don't think anyone can argue that, so this could be the "ace in the hole" that NV needs right now. (As long as it isn't delayed until June )

Anyway, Nvidia is desperate. you can tell by the rapid price drops and almost silly announcement of the 580. I bet it will just be another paper launch. when it actually comes out, it will be full of problems and a power guzzler.

FERMI is the hottest chip i've ever seen. This means durability and thus future reliability is in question. I just wonder how is the FERMI card gonna survive until when DX11 is readily available in all PC games? There is a good chance when all games are DX11, the FERMI chip is already broken.

Even if NVIDIA pulls something spectacular, i don't think i'll be able to separate myself from Morphological AA function. So, until NVIDIA can offer something similar (decent antialiasing quality, low impact and works in every game without exceptions), i'm sold to AMD.

Anyway, Nvidia is desperate. you can tell by the rapid price drops and almost silly announcement of the 580. I bet it will just be another paper launch. when it actually comes out, it will be full of problems and a power guzzler.

FERMI is the hottest chip i've ever seen. This means durability and thus future reliability is in question. I just wonder how is the FERMI card gonna survive until when DX11 is readily available in all PC games? There is a good chance when all games are DX11, the FERMI chip is already broken.

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To bad fermi isnt even that hot. I have a 470 and ive ran a 480 for a while. And they do not get that hot. I dont know why you guys get so butt hurt about things getting hot. we are PC Enthusiast we should expect to have things run hot. FERMI can run that hot to its not like its hurting it. my GTX480 ran at 75c gaming and my 470 ran at 65 to 70c gaming. Whats wrong with those temps. I had like 150mhz overclocks on them both to.